I know FV 215b can't really compete with the new heavies, but it's still better than the S. Conqueror.

Conq is highly situational, but can still dominate if in the right spot with support. FV only has the DPM, and will get rolled regardless. As it will get penned easy, even when side scraping or going hull down, as everyone knows about those two weak spots. Tho that won't make the Super Conq better either as such.

Tho they can't buff it to much either with that armor. Tho giving it a bit better gun handling and dpm would not hurt. Crap thing was that they just left the FV as is. And that's even worse. Not even and HD model to remove that stupid roof weak spot.

Im on the grind up to the FV 215b as i would like to get it before they replace it and get 2 for 1, currently on the Black Prince though so just seeing how far i get and may free xp straight to it at last minute i think

When is in time? I have like 200-300k free exp I can convert and I am only like 40k from the conqueror.

I am debating whether or not to just gold it up.

To get full Free XP you need (assuming you have all Caernarvon modules unlocked) around 25k for turret + 60k for gun + 210k for FV. Not sure about exact numbers but something around it.

So, free XP Conq research is around 300k Free XP from when it is unlocked. If you plan to play it than it is more (25k for tracks and 45k for engine).

As you are 40k from Conqueror my advice would be just to simply grind FV (if you are interested to grind it) instead of gold it.

Specially if you have XP boosters piled up. Just play with XP boosters up, Free XP Conqueror turret and top gun (to avoid stock pain) and than you can keep golding option for last day if you want and if you see you will not make it on time. With top gun Conqueror is quite fun tank to play. Armour is meh unless you can hide your hull but that gun is pure s.ex.

I have crew with BIA and with 400 alpha and 259 pen it have bellow 8,7sec reload, 0.3 accuracy and 1.7x sec aim time. Just awesome gun.

I had 68 2hr 100% XP boosters on stock that piled up over time when I started FV grind and played all time with them up. And in meanwhile got some back through this September mission.

Now on full researched Conqueror with 150k XP till FV215B. And as tank is really fun to play rest of grind should not be tedious at all.

People underestimate how useful actual armour can be, the fv is complete paper, the top speed on both tanks makes them slow regardless and the opportunities a centre mounted turret afford are significant, as well as the ability to side scrape without getting shafted.